Stumbled across this quick post recently and thought it was a really good tale and worth sharing.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a tweet asking: “If Linux is so good, why aren’t more people using it?” And it’s a fair question! It intuitively rings true until you give it a moment’s consideration. Linux is even free, so what’s stopping mass adoption, if it’s actually better? My response:
- If exercising is so healthy, why don’t more people do it?
- If reading is so educational, why don’t more people do it?
- If junk food is so bad for you, why do so many people eat it?
The world is full of free invitations to self-improvement that are ignored by most people most of the time. Putting it crudely, it’s easier to be fat and ignorant in a world of cheap, empty calories than it is to be fit and informed. It’s hard to resist the temptation of minimal effort.
And Linux isn’t minimal effort. It’s an operating system that demands more of you than does the commercial offerings from Microsoft and Apple. Thus, it serves as a dojo for understanding computers better. With a sensei who keeps demanding you figure problems out on your own in order to learn and level up.
Now I totally understand why most computer users aren’t interested in an intellectual workout when all they want to do is browse the web or use an app. They’re not looking to become a black belt in computing fundamentals.
But programmers are different. Or ought to be different. They’re like firefighters. Fitness isn’t the purpose of firefighting, but a prerequisite. You’re a better firefighter when you have the stamina and strength to carry people out of a burning building on your shoulders than if you do not. So most firefighters work to be fit in order to serve that mission.
That’s why I’d love to see more developers take another look at Linux. Such that they may develop better proficiency in the basic katas of the internet. Such that they aren’t scared to connect a computer to the internet without the cover of a cloud.
Besides, if you’re able to figure out how to setup a modern build pipeline for JavaScript or even correctly configure IAM for AWS, you already have all the stamina you need for the Linux journey. Think about giving it another try. Not because it is easy, but because it is worth it.
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That’s why I’d love to see more developers take another look at Linux. Such that they may develop better proficiency in the basic katas of the internet. Such that they aren’t scared to connect a computer to the internet without the cover of a cloud.
I worked at a company building Unix. Later, it built a few releases of a Linux distro too. The people there were proficient documenters and app dev; build, release and support (escalation) devs; and some kernel devs so blindingly smart it made us normies’ tired just trying to keep up mentally.
Everyone used windows.
“Whot?!?” Yes, windows. Building Unix - the Unix - and a Linux distro, these super-capable black belts of the OS (borrowing your term) should be in Korn all day long.
Windows. WinAMP. VanDyke. Mozilla.
These people have the skill for it, but their preference was for windows. Because it was bad, but consistently so and presented a unified force to cope around.
I’ve worked on Linux my entire career, having used Linux since 94. But aside from a short window in 96, I’ve also done it with windows.
Windows. Spotify. Putty. SeaMonkey.
Development led me directly to installing Linux because Windows is bad for dev…
I fell into the warm embrace of KDE and GNOME environments in 2022 and have never looked back.
I’ve been wanting to switch to Linux for years, but it was always too intimidating for me since I’m not a computer programmer. In the end, it took a roommate who was tech savvy to help install it and answer a few questions. Took about 10 minutes of his time but I still felt like a burden
Why don’t people use Linux? Fair question. It’s because people who don’t use Linux are stupid and lazy.
Wow, galaxy brain stuff.
It’s really the egos and superiority complexes of the Linux elitists that are preventing mass adoption.
And a distro that actually lets you use a UI for everything.
Nah. Most people who use computers would never interact with those folks.
It’s not installed by default and when things go wrong you need to fix it yourself.
People just want to use computers to do STUFF. They don’t want to think about the computers themselves.
Well android uses Linux I found out.
Yes, I think the biggest hurdle for Linux is the tech crowd giving it a reputation for being difficult
Well yes but also no. There are quite a few distros that are “minimal effort”, they just work for the average person without any more knowledge you’d need on Windows or Mac. The last part that’s still not so “minimal effort” is gaming, most things just work out of the box, some things don’t. Btw Android is Linux.
So I don’t think that the problem is that Linux needs a little more knowledge or effort, because it mostly doesn’t, but the fact that most people who would switch see a billion different distros and don’t know what to do. Having so much choice here actually hinders people from coming to Linux. Doesn’t mean it would be better with less choices, it’s just one of several reasons why we don’t see mass adoption.
Another reason is the outdated thinking that Linux is complicated to use (and this blog fuels just that).
I often see people saying Linux is difficult to install and use, and when people ask for more details it turns out they’re describing an experience from 15-20 years ago, and they haven’t tried using it since. There are several very easy distros around now.
Yep. Linux is as easy or often easier to install than Windows. The main difference is people rarely install Windows, it’s just there, by default.
The Big issue, I think, is the tyranny of the default.
The rest of the usability issues will get fixed with greater adoption rates if they come.
But yeah, once you get over the hurdle of going against the default, the deluge of choice is overwhelming, much like why Mastodon and Lemmy didn’t see huge usage spikes when Twitter and Reddit went to shit, but Bluesky did.
dhh isn’t advocating for linux for everybody per se; instead it’s addressed at programmers and similar folk who regard linux as way too complex for everyday use. the background story being that he was an Apple fanboy for the longest time and recently made the switch and now can’t shut up about it. as a result they (basecamp) developed some insane rice setup that has to be seen to be believed, it’s beyond ridiculous.
as an aside, I’ve met those people he’s talking at and they regularly blow my mind. like, how can you utilize a modern toolchain for practically every possible development scenario using an OS that actively fights you every step of the way, the abomination called WSL notwithstanding…
so the idea is the brogrammers will become the early adopters and by way of trickle-down-tech linux will make its way to normies, same way e.g. Android did.
I don’t think that’s gonna happen in the foreseeable future. the options, distros, DEs, whatevers are way too fragmented and fragile and are infested with the most deluded, rabid “fans” there are, each and everyone of them mired in truckloads of “no true scottsman” fallacies.
Apple has a vertically integrated tech stack - there is one DE, one WM, one codebase for every product they sell and they are free to focus their sinister efforts elsewhere, backed by the deepest coffers there are.
contrast this with the myriad of distros, package managers, DEs, WMs, etc. each pulling in a different direction, abandoned paths and duplicated efforts galore, done predominantly with no funds to speak of; and if there are any, they are squandered on… what was it, shamans?
no math in this universe is gonna make team #2 catch up to team #1, let alone surpass it.
And Linux isn’t minimal effort. It’s an operating system that demands more of you than does the commercial offerings from Microsoft and Apple. Thus, it serves as a dojo for understanding computers better. With a sensei who keeps demanding you figure problems out on your own in order to learn and level up.
Counterpoint: most people don’t use Linux because the people that evangelize Linux talk about it like this.
I don’t want to “level up,” I want to accomplish my tasks. I’m trying to get shit done, not train for a fucking tournament.
Exactly this.
I’m a software dev and also a Linux user, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend my precious time messing around with the OS trying to solve problems.
I see the operating system as a tool I use to accomplish the things I actually want to do, which is writing my code for my projects, just the same as I see a car as a tool to get me from point A to point B.
If Linux was complicated to set up, or always broken, or requiring constant work then I wouldn’t use it, no more than I’d tolerate a car which is broken down and in the shop every other week. But fortunately, Linux is none of those things.
Modern Linux mostly “just works”, and it’s really counterproductive to talk about Linux like it’s hard or you need to be a deeply invested techie to use it.
See, you have people like you all over saying “Linux just works” and then you have other users here saying “I have to spend an hour fixing my computer running one of the most user friendly distros every single time the power goes out”. I don’t know who to believe but both cannot be true simultaneously so which is it?
Well, they can be simultaneously true if one person has a terrible experience because of Nvidia and another person with an all amd build who happens to have a Linux friendly touchpad (is that still a problem these days?) might have a perfect experience out of the box.
I think that’s a major weakness, that windows will be good or bad in various ways but it’s very consistent - the things that suck usually suck for everyone. With Linux everything depends, not only on hardware but with your use case, the distro you pick, the tools you use, etc.
It’s both. Linux mostly just works, but when it breaks, it breaks in a way which is sometimes difficult for the average person to recover from.
I’ve had a couple of times in the past where something has gone horribly, outrageously wrong, and I decided to just reinstall and start again from fresh, because that was way less time investment than fixing what broke.
Nowadays I’m using Timeshift backups, and I think that’s a positive move.
Timeshift is great. I’ve recovered from an rm -rf /* with it, just to see if I could. Turns out: yes.
Different people have different experiences for lots of reasons. Like I used to have constant problems with Windows that took days to fix, and some people never had any problems. It depends on your hardware, software, settings, what you’re doing with it…with every OS.
I used Arch Linux full time from about 15 years ago to 8 years ago. I stopped when I went back to school to get a degree. I was tired of fixing things all the time and I didn’t want to have to deal with that when I had assignment deadlines looming, so I bought a MacBook for school.
I’ve since graduated but I really haven’t looked back. I’ll probably start using Linux again for some hobby projects and maybe to build a SteamOS computer for gaming, but I doubt I’ll switch back to Linux for my main computer (a MacBook M1), especially since the public blowup of Marcan over Rust for Linux and the uncertainty that brings to the Asahi project.
Your solution was to buy a whole other computer instead of just switching to a stable distro?
If you just want to get shit done, allow me to introduce you to Debian…
I think people that talk like this overstate the difficulty of Linux. There are easy distros that won’t trouble the average user.
Things have also gotten easier since I started 15 years ago
Waaaay easier on a longer timeline too! I first used Linux in the late 90s when the things the author of this piece talks about were true. You really did need to understand more than an average computer user just to get Linux installed.
That hasn’t been the case in a long, long time now, at least not with the easier distros.
What articles like this often fail to discuss is that Windows took effort for everyone to learn at some point too. Same with macOS. Same with your smart phone.
Learning anything requires effort, and not everyone wants to invest that effort - which is totally okay if they already get what they need from whatever they’re already using. But I wish that people would stop exaggerating how hard Linux is to learn simply because it will require effort.
Can confirm. I started on Slackware 3.6. I did need to know stuff about computers. The same stuff I had to learn about Windows. We all helped each other out. And there was never an average user installing Windows, ever. Average users would just ask for help. It seems to so moronic to read, “Linux needs to be made easier for the ‘average’ users to install if you want people to use it.” Windows isn’t easy enough for the average user to install but somehow Linux needs to over come that feet. So ridiculous.
Reminds me of that Linus Tech tips video where they try Linux for gaming. Linus, says something like, “We are all tech people, Linux shouldn’t be this hard”. Right, so I’m good with Linux so I should just be good at every other OS out there. Every MacOS techie should know everything about Windows and Linux and every other OS floating around on the internet?! Makes total sense.
Linus was a total idiot in that video. It was embarrassing.
Agreed.
Things have gotten harder for me! But that’s because the things I want to do with it get more interesting and complicated as my knowledge grows.
I’m the laziest man on earth and I use Mint, way less hassle than windows for example. So if you have never used either, you can safely go with Mint IMO.
If you gave spent 20 years on windows, then it’s another story.
I’ve spent 30 years on Windows and I let it go almost 2 years ago for Mint.
The only real pain point I’ve found is on a hard power-off (loss of power, OS hangs) I often have to do some CLI drive maintenance using a bunch of commands I can’t fucking remember to save my life. ChatGPT always helps me out (so nice to just take a pictures of logs and error messages on my screen and have ChatGPT tell me what if anything is relevant), but I’m a power user of both computers and ChatGPT so I’m able to push back on ChatGPT when it’s wrong about something, getting side-tracked, or tells me to use tools that non-standard for my distribution. I’m not sure casual users would find AI as helpful, which means they have to call a professional (or relative) for help which can cost money.
Printing isn’t quite the same. Certain PDFs have to be printed to TIFF files before they will print. Some applications don’t offer my printer as an option, so for example I have to download a PDF that is open in Firefox and then print it from whatever the default PDF application is. I haven’t even attempted to set up the scanning functionality of my printer on this computer.
Games for the most part just work. I tend to buy everything off of Steam and I haven’t really had to mess with anything to get them to work on my computer. I did buy one game that isn’t on Steam and it took an hour or two of effort to get Wine working with it
90+% of what low-tech computer users use a computer for is just a browser. I spend probably 1% or less of my time in CLI, maybe 10-20% of my time in specific apps (VSCode, IntelliJ, Joplin, LibreOffice, Discord, Steam games) and almost everything else I do is in a browser.
Moral of my story, I suppose, is if Mint would auto-heal on hard power-off and you can browser and print just as easily as on Windows, I could recommend it to my non-technical folks.
I wonder what the print issue is caused by…
I normally hear that Linux is normally better for printing.
Alas, printers suck
I was really rushed when I set it up. Maybe I missed something. It’s a Brother network laser printer. I think it’s the network printer that needs more handling but I really don’t know. I’ll put some more time in later. At any rate it was more CLI fiddling.
Maybe I just needed to go out and find Brother Linux drivers and install that way.
For your journey, I found this Linux mint thread that looks to be helpful. I’ve not touched cups in a while bc the only printers I have access to only allow printing through some crappy proprietary app that doesn’t have a Linux version, so I can’t attest to its correctness.
Sysadmin here. I use Linux a lot on the job and in my homelab, but it’s true, I don’t wasn’t firefighting exercises off the clock. I just want to use my computer. Also, my systems are used by the whole family, and they sure as hell don’t want to learn Linux and become IT zealots.
I started using Linux as a liberal arts major in the late '90s. Both my grandparents (RIP) and my parents (partial RIP) kept having issues with Windows on their computers. I was constantly being called to help them with crap. 20+ years ago I asked if I could try something and they didn’t care, as long as it worked. Debian and XFCE. Configured their email, hooked up the printer. Suddenly the service issues went from several times a week to once every 5+ years. And 90% of those issues just was clearing out the printer queue. I have never once understood the LiNuX iS OnlY FoR suPer TeCH NeRDS bullshit.
Everytime I’d installed Linux, I would run into having to run/copy paste random scripts here and there without any clue what I’m doing. Then after a few months it’s total carnage and I end up just logging into Windows. It might be much better now with LLM’s though. Also last time I was using my pc mostly to play CS:GO on FaceIt while chatting on Discord, which I was not able to do on linux.
You’re right in that case - most “granny” users just need a browser and maybe a printer. Don’t need Windows, you could probably run that on a Raspberry.
The catch is when they want more, like their VoIP App that only hat Mac and Windows installers, or some arcane HP scanner with 32 bit Windows 7 drivers. Or they are competent and want an actual full MS Office suite including Excel formulas and functions; Calc is still not on par. Or, kicker, if they actually need to exchange Office files with others without lossy conversions.
The reason is that Linux usually doesn’t come preinstalled. I’m pretty sure at least 50% of the users wouldn’t even notice they have Mint Cinnamon instead of Windows on their Laptops.
totally this!!! Most users just need a browser and an email client at best. They couldn’t care less about the OS that’s sitting on top of. If they could go to a store and see a $1000 laptop with Windows and $800 laptop with Linux being sold side by side, majority would pick the cheaper one if they could still get online with it.
I’m 💯 sure at least 99% of steamdecks run the ootb steam Linux
I’m sure I would like Bazzite on my Deck. But I don’t use it a ton and Steam OS works fine. So I’d only install Bazzite if I was bored and wanted a project.
I see no need for anything but steamOS on my deck but i put bazzite on my desktop the other week. Best thing i have done.
I know a guy running windows on a steam deck. Absolutely mad
What a pervert.
That’s like buying a Ferrari and dropping in a Lada engine.
that is
ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTANG
I’d crank that up to like 80% Linux users somehow always seem to overestimate how tech savvy most people are.
I’d say 50% of users can’t tell you what an operating system is. maybe more. and ya’ll expect those people to be able to CHOOSE a Linux distro and actually install it. no way. that’s way way too much to ask of the average end user.
Jorge Castro of Universal Blue (Bazzite, Bluefin, Aurora) likes to say that normal people don’t install operating systems. And he’s totally right.
I don’t use Linux. I’m here from /all. I last attempted Linux probably around 2006 or so. The biggest thing I remember was driver support being awful. I guess it’s a lot better now?
My biggest hurdle to making the switch is that it takes effort. It’s not because I’m lazy; it’s because I don’t see any need to put in effort. Because I already have an OS, and it works fine. I know that to some, particularly in this community, there are a lot of things about Windows to complain about, but the vast majority of users can’t come up with a list of things that bothers them about their daily OS. If my computer already had Linux on it, I’d probably feel exactly the same way.
Tbh I just care about privacy and do not want surveillance on my system. If you don’t care about that (which I can understand because life is hard and energy is limited), then Windows or Mac is maybe perfectly fine for you. All I am saying is, if Linux would be pre-installed, people wouldn’t care to make a switch to Windows, they would just live with a perfectly fine OS and go on with their lives.
My biggest hurdle to making the switch is that it takes effort.
Thats pretty understandable honestly. If my old netbook wasn’t so bogged down from Windows, there’s a chance I wouldn’t have switched to Linux. In a way, I’m glad for it, but it woulda been easier if it just came with Linux preinstalled <3
The biggest thing I remember was driver support being awful. I guess it’s a lot better now?
In my experience drivers have been pretty solid… except for NVIDIA. People seem to either have 0 issues or tons. Fingers crossed the upcoming Nova+NVK driver combo brings a more consistent and stable experience for all :)
I just made this same basic point in response to another comment, but this is exactly right. It takes effort to learn anything new, and that effort isn’t always worth it to people. But that alone doesn’t make using Linux “hard.”
Exactly, my wife struugles with tech. She hated windows and how it did unexpected things that made no sense. I put Linux on her computer, she doesn’t bug me with complaints now since it operates the same every day.
I did the same thing for my wife. She lives almost exclusively in the browser. I put her on the same atomic OS I’m using, and for her the experience is pretty similar to her previous Chromebook.
Similar : my spouse was complaining about how slow her laptop was and that she’d probably have to buy a new one. I popped a bootable Mint USB in and she was impressed that it was “like new”.
I left her on the bootable for a week as a trial then installed it to the HD. 99% of what she does is browser based anyway.
Yeah same kind of experience, on Windows 10 her laptop would barely run, it lagged so badly because it is a 2 core Celeron. On Linux it is actually peppy and she can run her zoom meetings and excel stuff, plus browsing. It is comparable speed to my new work laptop with 20 core processor running W11…that’s how bad WindowsOS has become
@clif @BCsven are you implying that Linux is not compatible with most things on winlol? I’ve yet to find anything that I need and is winlol only, everything either has a version on Linux or has a Linux-able alternative
There are many winlol-only things but none I need
For gaming, Linux
For office use, Linux
For media, definitely Linux…Not at all. It’s more of “I’m used to windows, change is scary”
There are still some things that are win/mac only and if you’re heavily invested in them it can be hard to migrate to Linux based FOSS alternatives (or, VM/WINE/etc). But, most “normal” (non-geek) people aren’t keen on throwing away all of their experience on one specific application to learn a new, different, one… Regardless of feature parity.
I haven’t looked in several years, but noob friendly CAD is one example. I ended up using browser based ones since I couldn’t find an easy offline one. “Easy” is the key here - there are pretty great FOSS CAD suites, they just aren’t super friendly to stupid people (me).
Though, that may have changed, if you’ve got recommendations please let me know.
And that’s all most people want from a computer, yet Windows always throws a curve ball at some point.
My home computers and servers are all Linux since 2017, even my work Laptop was because the CAD/CAM software had a Linux version. I have been running W11 for work lately and it is such a terrible user experience. I will be mid productivity mode and the Office Ai.exe kicks and and reduces my brand new machine down to a crawl speed. It happened way too many times and it does nothing to improve what I’m working on. I tried deleting the ai.exe and aimgr.exe, but those get reinstalled after an update, so now I have made two empty text files and renamed them to match the two files, this (so far ) has tricked MS into not reinstalling those files.
But there are so many other janky bullshit things that W11 does that I can’t believe a company the size of MS can release this stuff
Not sure if this can help. Seems like you might have it covered for now. But, just in case, If you go to the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Runyou can add a key for the name of the executable that gets run,Ai.exeand the value gets set to another program you want to run. Maybe you can set it to empty. Haven’t used Windows for over a decade, but I do remember setting that value to open an nPipe for debugging with WinDBG.Thanks for the info. I will try this if Windows clobbers what I have now.
Astounding. This is why I got away from sysadmin work. Dealing with Microsoft products kills my enjoyment of computing.
Yeah, the issues with Windows are mostly a ton of really small things. There aren’t too many major issues that will force you to switch instantly, and no one of the small things will make you switch because it’s easier to just deal with it and move in in that moment.
I can’t even remember what it was that made me switch about two years ago. It was Windows ignoring a setting I changed before when it updated. It just got really frustrating how little they care about what I want my system to do/look like. They only care about what they want, but it’s my machine! It all eventually pushed me over the edge, but most users aren’t tracking that.
I’m pretty convinced that most users would have a better time with Linux now though. In particular, the package manager makes not dealing with individual application updates and running random executable you find online such a better experience. As long as people are using a distro that suits their requirements, and not one that requires a lot of manual effort, it functions better than Windows. It isn’t Windows though, so they get annoyed that it doesn’t function identically to that shitty system they’re used to.
I was a Windows user for around 30 years and loved it. But I got so frustrated with Windows that I switched. My computer didn’t feel like I was the one in control of it anymore, and I hated that.
I’m very happy on Linux, now.
My first experience was from back then also. It is much easier today than it was back then. It drove me crazy around 2008 or whenever I was fiddling around with it but today I would say it is easier than windows if you have an open mind.
You hit the nail right on the head. Chromebooks got decent enough uptake and many folks just use an ios or android smartphone and don’t really use a computer. In some ways its nice things are like this. At least for me. I used to eat fast food way to often but that bout of inflation hit fastfood hard and now I rarely if ever eat it. Even my once in awhile is a non chain burger, hot dog, beef, gyro, burrito type place and not taco bell or mcdonalds since the mom and pop places are like a buck or two more for higher quality. Still pretty rare though.
Man, I wish the Windows-only shop I support as a sysadmin “just worked.” I spend the majority of my time troubleshooting random Windows issues.
Driver issues, firmware issues, Teams breaking, Outlook breaking, SharePoint and OneDrive sync issues, Edge freezing/crashing, UI scaling issues, routine updates failing, random connectivity issues, random audio issues, printer issues…
I won’t lie, my Linux computers have random issues too, but way less often than the Windows machines I have to support every day. And when I encounter the Linux issues, I actually can fix them in a way that is permanent almost always.
Windows on the other hand, I typically fix and then the same problem starts happening again a few months later after an update, or the only “fix” that works is restarting the computer several times in a row.
To be fair to the Windows defenders, Windows 11 has easily been the worst for this in my experience. Windows 10 was more stable, and Windows 7 was even better. XP had lots of random issues, but back then you could still get under the hood pretty easily and make Windows do what you wanted.
Every personal device I have runs Linux and has for several years. I removed Windows completely from my life thank God, and I can’t imagine going back. I honestly would be more likely to stop using computers altogether before I went back to the horror show that is Windows/Microsoft.
See…
The RTFM condescending, contemptuous attitude doesn’t help.
A lot of us are not teens, or 20 somethings, and have other responsibilities and duties.
We just want the shit to “Just Work.” We don’t want to research why the last version upgrade broke the graphics driver, or why our printer doesn’t work anymore, or any of that stuff.
Granted, the distros that try to fix this have advanced light years over the last actual 20 years, but it’s still not good enough.
And yes, I have my “Compiled From Scratch Arch” membership card. Never again.
Have you tried driving without learning ?
Have you tried not trying to funny? Because you are not.
What if I need a program that is only available for windows?
- You may not actually need that app. There are many alternatives to Windows-only apps. 95% of the time, I use those. Web apps or Linux native apps.
or 2) you switch back to Windows when you really need that one app. Odds are, over time, you realize it’s actually #1.
I’m in the same boat, adobe can get fucked
If such an awful thing ever happpened to me in my personal life I’d change my needs.
In work of course I’m fucked, by stupidity rather than needs of course, but at least that’s only for 37.5 hours a week.
The app may be windows only, but it can often help to ask for alternative. And not things like “What can I use in Linux that is the same as <app> under Windows”. More along the lines of “I need to create or do <x>. In Windoze I used <app>, how do I get the same work done under Linux”. Sometimes you don’t have much of a choice, go emulation layer or VM, but often you can find a different path to the same result and once you get used to it, it’s often a better solution.
compatibility layers makes 99% software work
or try a virtual windows instance if performace is not critical
Yeah, but for non-technical people this is an insurmountable barrier. My aunt isn’t “trying a virtual machine”.
the setup is straightfoward
people are just allergic to the terminal
you aunt can get a windows instance setup by someone competent and use that instance forever
Like what? They all have linux versions, alternatives or work with wine, the main issue is sub based window ones since the way they verify licenses often has issues with wine. Im assuming you’re missing out on adobe or autodesk stuff?
If the programs cpu heavy its suprisingly not that hard to setup windows qemu whatever its called, it opens windows app as native linux windows even tho its an emulation it looks cleaner, but I had issues getting my gpu to work and even if it does I think your linux screen goes black when in use, it was just a hassle and trying to connect the gpu made me need to reset my linux install since my discrete gpu wouldnt work and I had no idea why. Worked fine til I tried to connect my discrete gpu and is very useful for cpu based programs.
This is not straightforward for the average user. There’s plenty of commercial or niche software that has no real alternative in Linux land. CAD being one - and I’m well aware of freecad, and I love it, but it ain’t a pro tool yet.
What average user uses CAD? I think you are conflating what an average user requires.
Type of user that uses/ want to swap to linux is more likely to be into cad compared to the average window user, just more tech related hobbies
